HIIT TREADMILL WORKOUT

Welcome to the latest edition of Workout Wednesday! High intensity interval workouts are great for when you want an effective workout with little time. This treadmill HIIT workout can be completed in 20 minutes. It is great for both beginners and intermediate runners who want to improve speed, lose fat and gain fitness.

Always warm up before beginning any workout. This treadmill workout is eight rounds of 30 second sprints followed by 90 seconds of active recovery. I recommend HIIT workouts 1-3 times per week depending on your fitness level and experience with HIIT. If you are new to high intensity workouts, start with one time a week. Always allow 1-2 rest and recovery days in between high intensity days to allow your body to properly recover. Your body adapts (gets stronger, faster, etc.) during rest, not during the workout, so it's important to allow this recovery time to get the maximum results. 

Ready to get started? After three minutes of brisk walking to warm up, sprint for 30 seconds at Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 7-9 (breathing should be challenging) followed by 90 seconds of slow jogging or walking (RPE 4-6) to recover before going into your next interval. You will repeat this cycle until you complete 8 total sprint rounds. 

Cool down at the end of the workout by walking for as long as it takes to fully recover your breath.

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After 4-8 weeks of this workout 1-3 times a week you can expect to see improvements in your running speed and efficiency, provided you are resting appropriately. 

In order to keep progressing you may find that your sprint speed intervals need to increase as you get stronger. Remember that we always want to challenge ourselves to keep improving. After several weeks If you find that the sprint intervals start to feel easier, that is a sign it is time to increase the speed. If you follow the RPE chart then you should be able to determine if you are working at the appropriate intensity. Everyone is different but you may find you need increase speed of your sprint intervals after about three weeks of regular interval work. Listen to your body. 

Do you do HIIT workouts? I love them for both cardio and strength training. Give this one a try and let me know what you think.

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52 Healthy Habits Week 5: Stop the Scrolling

We are five weeks into my new series, 52 healthy habits, where I attempt to tackle a new healthy habit each week. I believe that no matter where you are in your fitness journey there is always room for incremental improvements for a healthier, happier life. 

As I work on new habits I am sure some will stick and others will fall away. I'll have successes and failures along the way. I am just five weeks in and I have already had some struggles adopting and following through with some of these ideas. While I write this series for accountability for myself and to get you thinking about the small changes you can make, I don't use it to feel bad about myself. If I have a bad week, if I don't follow-through on some of my intentions, I try to examine what went wrong to see how I can do better in the future or reexamine if I need it in my life at all. I never feel bad about what I failed to do in the past. The past is over. I am looking to get better in the future. 

Last week my new habit was writing 'morning pages.' I did OK. Not perfect. I wrote a few days and missed a few days. The days I missed were all days that I forgot to do it until it was too late and I had to leave for work. This just tells me I have to do a better job of listing out my morning to-do's and then actually look at the list. (I am notorious for writing lists but never looking at them because they are sooo far away in my backpack in the other room. hah.) So next week as I tackle my new habit, I will continue to work on morning pages to improve over last week. 

Week 3 was tracking my macros and attempting to do a better job in hitting the targeted percentages. I planned ahead and did much better last week. I still wasn't exact, but I am finally getting into the groove of planning ahead, entering meals in advance and adjusting as needed. I am improving a lot over the previous weeks.

My most successful new habit despite a very rocky start is getting up at 5:30am every day (even on weekends) to work on my blog, business or to workout. It still feels hard, but getting slightly easier. We slept in to 8:30 on Saturday this week because my husband plays drums and he had a late show on Friday night and slept until 6:30 on Sunday because...well, because Sunday. Every other day we were up and at 'em at 5:30 and I am pretty proud of that especially considering how poorly we did the first week. 

WEEK 5: STOP THE SCROLLING

I have a problem. It's a real addiction. The scrolling. Even when I get up early some mornings I spend way too much time scrolling Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram and then I don't get anything productive done. That defeats the purpose of rising early. The point of getting up early is to have more hours in my day to be productive, not to waste those hours on social media that I could have been sleeping.

Then it doesn't end there. I get home from work in the evenings, eat dinner, do dishes, walk Ollie and then it's usually around 8 or 8:30. At this point, as long as I have my 10k steps, I sit my butt on the couch and scroll social media on my iPad until bedtime! This is a massive waste of time and I need to do better. I have so many dreams, plans and ideas that all require execution and execution requires time. I have the time. I just need to use my time more wisely.

I look at it as my unwinding time, but reading is a much more productive unwinding activity. This week my intention is to spend 15 minutes catching up on emails and social media in the morning after my walk and then put social media away for the rest of the day. I can spend another 15 minutes when I get home from work, that is still 30 minutes a day, but an improvement. I will unwind with a book in the evening instead of my iPad. I know with a little thought I can make massive improvements in this area. 

Often our bad habits sneak in and we don't even notice them until they they are out of control, but if we focus on them and strive for improvement we can make the changes necessary to restore a healthy balance. 

Stay tuned next week as I tackle a big one that I have been putting off since Thanksgiving. Yikes.

Can you relate? What healthy habits are you tackling this week? If you need some help tracking your new habits, I created a free tracker download. 

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Tracking Results: Healthy Planner and 4 Week Tracker Printable Downloads

Happy Friday, friends! This week I am excited to share my new printable trackers. Call me old-fashioned (or just old), but I really like paper planners and trackers. Sure, I use my iPhone for appointments, I log meals into MyFitnessPal and I use my FitBit to track my steps, but when I was looking for a daily tracker I couldn't find exactly what I needed, so I decided to make my own. (I knew all those years working in Excel spreadsheets for my corporate job would eventually pay off.) 

I created a Healthy Planner printable PDF that you can download which includes a daily food log, a daily gratitude journal, a water consumption checklist, healthy habits log and an exercise log all on one page!

HEALTHY PLANNER PRINTABLE

Healthy planner - Like this tracker? Save to your favorite Pinterest board!

DAILY FOOD LOG

I love the daily food log because the key to success in weight loss and weight management is planning ahead! If I sit down the night before and plan out my food day, I am more likely to stick to healthy eating and less likely to run through the drive through in a state of hunger panic. I don't have to be super specific with measurements and ingredients like I might on MyFitnessPal, I will just jot down what I am planning for lunch: i.e. chicken salad and an orange. Then I fill in what I actually ate to see how well I stuck to my plan. If I didn't stick to my plan, I try to figure out what went wrong and how I can improve for next time. 

GRATITUDE JOURNAL

With everything else going on my life, I like the idea of quickly jotting down 3 things I am grateful for each day. It can be anything from a husband who makes dinner every night, the friend who listens to my (first world) problems or the great parking spot out front. It's a good reminder to practice daily gratitude for the little and big things alike.

HEALTHY HABITS

If you have been following along you know I am experimenting with new healthy habits each week. In this section I can write the habit that I am working on for that week and evaluate how I did. It might be journaling, walking 10K steps, tracking or getting up early. Having a written list of the habits I am trying to instill helps me remember and provides accountability. Daily consistent actions produce results.

WATER CONSUMPTION

Just a quick little check list to check off my 8 glasses of water of day. Everyone's water need are a little different, but this is a good starting point. You can adjust if you need more or less. 

EXERCISE LOG

Lastly we have a section to log exercise, whether it was a cardio session or weight lifting I have a place to jot down my stats so I remember for next time. With any exercise program you want to make sure you are always progressing as your body adapts so that you can see improvements. If you don't remember how heavy the weights were or how many reps/sets you did, it is harder to make sure you are progressing. Tracking is a great tool for success.

4 WEEK TRACKER PRINTABLE

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on my links and make a purchase I receive a percentage of the sale with no additional cost to you. No one is getting rich here, it just helps with the running (pun intended) of this blog. If I hated it, I'd tell you. 

I was on a roll and started thinking about all the trackers I wanted to create. I mentioned in a previous post that I just started Cori Lefkowith's six week macro cycling program again and this will be my 2nd time through the program. I wanted to track a little more closely this time. During the first 6 weeks I only paid attention to scale weight, but by own admission the scale is only one tiny piece of the puzzle. Although I lost 8 pounds in 6 weeks (mostly just a few vanity pounds that I gained over the holidays) I have no idea what other progress I may or may not have made. So I decided when I repeated the cycle I was going to track a little closer this time. 

4 week tracker printable - Like this tracker? Save to your favorite Pinterest board.

STATS

The first section is for tracking scale weight, body fat percentage, waist, hips, thigh and biceps measurements for four weeks. Sometimes results don't show on the scale, but you see them in the measurements. If you are going to track your scale weight it is a good idea to get the whole picture by also taking measurements.

THREE THINGS I ROCKED 

At the end of each week look back on the week and write three things you did really well. Maybe it was that you exercised 3 times last week, you ate vegetables with most meals or walked your dog everyday after dinner. Whatever healthy steps you took to help reach your goals this is the place to pat yourself on the back. 

THREE THINGS TO IMPROVE

What went wrong? What could have you done better? Maybe you slept in and missed your workout. Maybe you were tired when you got home from work and hit the drive through instead of making dinner at home. Evaluate the things that didn't go as planned and try to figure out a better game plan for next time. This isn't about beating ourselves up for our shortcomings (it's life. we're human. move on.) It's about learning from our mistakes so we can improve next time. 

NON-SCALE VICTORIES

Think hard about your non-scale victories. No matter if the scale went up or down or stayed the same last week, what positive benefits have you been experiencing from your healthy lifestyle? It could be that you are sleeping better, you have more energy, your skinny jeans fit again, you ran faster than last week or lifted a new PR. Take pride in these victories (even the small ones) because they are the ones that matter the most. 

GOALS AND RESULTS

The boxes at the bottom are for planning your monthly goals and then recording your results. You don't know how far you've come unless you remember where you started. 

Do you want these planners and trackers? Sign up here!

healthy planner and 4 week tracker printables. Save to your favorite Pinterest board.

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Tabata-Style Lower Body Plyometrics Workout

Welcome to the latest edition of Workout Wednesday! Today we are incorporating plyometrics into our workout! Plyometrics are jumping exercises that use maximum force to develop muscle power, which in turn can help you run faster. Runners who systematically use plyometric exercises in their training plan can increase speed and running efficiency. Before attempting plyometric exercises you should have a solid base of body strength, core strength and balance. Do you have four minutes? Let's get started! 

This workout is done in Tabata-style: 20 seconds work with 10 seconds rest for four minutes. In this workout you will cycle through the four exercises for four minutes. For an increased challenge just do one exercise at a time for the whole four minutes using the 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest protocol. 

You will need a Tabata timer. You can download a free one in the App store or Google Play. I use a Gymboss Interval timer. (<---affiliate link)

THE EXERCISES:

LUNGE

With your feet hip width apart and your toes pointed straight ahead, engage your core, keep your chest up and back straight. Take one large step with your right leg to lunge forward until your front knee is lined up over your ankle and your back knee is nearly touching the floor. Do not allow your knee to move forward over your toes. Resist the urge to lean forward or rest your arms on your thighs. Once you are in the lunge position push back up through your heels to starting position. Repeat on other side alternating for 20 seconds.

JUMP LUNGE

Begin in a lunge position with your right leg forward. Jump up and switch legs in the air so you land in a lunge position with your left leg in front. Continue alternating for 20 seconds. Alternate right and left leg forward for 20 seconds. Beginners should hold the position for 3 seconds before switching legs. As you progress you can increase the speed of the jumps. It is always better to go slow with proper form, than to perform the exercises quickly with poor form. 

SQUAT

Push your hips back and lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor, like you are sitting back in a chair, or as low as your flexibility allows. Keep your back straight and your chest up. In the low position engage your core, squeeze your glutes and push back up to standing with your weight on your heels. Repeat for 20 seconds.

JUMP SQUAT

Start by lowering into a squat position. From the low position engage your core and jump up. Land softly in the low squat position. Beginners should hold the low position for 3 seconds before repeating the jump. Repeat for 20 seconds.

I recommend low-impact workout days surrounding your plyometric days to allow your body time to sufficiently rest and recover. Since running is also a high impact activity, I recommend no more than one or two plyometric workouts per week. Do you incorporate plyometrics into your training? Give this quick workout a try and let me know what you think! 

Coach Lea

52 Healthy Habits: Week 4 Morning Pages

Welcome to the latest edition of 52 healthy habits, where each week I tackle a new healthy habit and attempt to build upon these habits week after week. The reason I started this series is because I believe healthy habits are the the cornerstone of goal achievement. Whatever it is that you want to do in life, figure out the actions you need to take every day to get there and start building habits. It's not easy and I am certainly not perfect, but I hope you will follow along on my healthy habits journey as I succeed and fail along the way. 

(this post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click on a link and make a purchase on this site I make a small percentage of the sale with no additional cost to you. No one is getting rich here. It just helps with the running (pun intended) of this site.)

My week one healthy habit was getting up early at 5:30am to work on my blog, business or work out, and while I massively failed that first week, I have improved drastically in weeks two and three. This week we got up early every day, even Saturday and Sunday. While it still feels hard even after a full eight hours of sleep, we are rolling on this habit. Day by day. 

My week two habit was entering my calories into MyFitnessPal every day and I was able to do that (I don't do weekends for sanity sake) with little issues. I wanted to make my week two habit something easy since I was still struggling with the morning thing.

My week three habit was to hit the macros more closely on my macro shred program. While I haven't improved drastically I have set up an action plan for next week. I am starting over the 6 week program on Cori Lefkowith's 6 Week Macro Cycling Shred Program, I am really focusing on hitting the targets this time around.

WEEK 4: Morning Pages

Now we are moving into week four! My healthy habit for next week is Morning Pages. Have you heard about Morning Pages? I listen to a lot of Podcasts and this concept seemed to be coming up over and over again on different shows. Morning Pages are three pages of a handwritten brain dump written shortly after you wake up in the morning. It's not a list, it's definitely not an article or a story. It is a stream of consciousness writing about whatever is on your mind. If you don't know what to write? Just start writing. You can write that you don't know what to write about and it seems useless. It's OK. You're not supposed to reread and certainly not edit what you wrote. It is for your eyes only, so you should really be able to pour your heart into it. Some even suggested having another notebook nearby for ideas or to-dos that might come up during your sessions since you're not supposed to analyze or edit, it is not a great place to store actionable ideas. 

They said that some people may feel inclined to type their morning pages, but to resist the urge. It takes longer to write out by hard and forces you to slow down your thoughts, it's harder to edit (and harder to reread apparently, my handwriting is atrocious). I am committed to writing three handwritten pages everyday about whatever my brain and pen spill out on the paper. Worries, fears, goals, dreams, complaints, gratitude, nothing. Just get it down. Hubby looked at me a little weird when he saw me scribbling in my notebook. "Is that your manifesto?" he asked with a smirk.

It feels sort of like a teenage girl's diary minus the boy bands (unless you count Jack White) but I started several days ago (already missed a day or two) so next week I want to commit to the three pages every day, even on weekends. It takes about 20-25 minutes to finish, so good thing I've been getting up earlier. Depending on what I write, some days I think I will want to ceremoniously light the pages on fire and burn them in my backyard so I am sure no one will ever read them. I don't think that's what the creator had in mind. I have visions of my family going through my things in my home after I'm dead and finding Grandma's old "crazy" notebooks and even though I am already dead in this scenario, I die inside. hah.

So what are the benefits? According to some die-hard practitioners, a clearer mind, more creative thoughts and reduced anxiety. I'll take it. Seems like worth a shot.

I think there is some merit to this and I have faith in the process because once back in 2014 I started a 1000 word a day challenge. It lasted a whopping eight days. I opened a new free blog account and starting typing. It was amazing that after seven days of writing my mind never felt so clear. I wrote about it on that blog and I said that I didn't notice how much noise was going on in my brain until I cleared it all out. Then it felt so quiet in comparison. That was three years ago. It is plenty cluttered again. The reason I said I stopped doing the 1000 words a day is exactly the fact that I was typing and publishing online so I was editing myself. Maybe not saying everything I really thought and felt deep down inside for fear of judgement, criticism or ridicule (or trouble!). WIth morning pages you get it all out there (even if it is not fit for public consumption). I am excited about this new habit. I am excited to remember what that clear mind feeling is like because that is a foreign concept these days. I'll let you know how it goes. Just promise me if I die you won't read them.

You can learn more about Morning Pages in this article, the one I originally referenced in 2014 when I talked about wanting to stop typing my 1000 words a day and start penning them, but somehow I never did. 

What healthy habits are you tackling this week? Have you ever heard of Morning Pages? Willing to give it a shot? I am excited about it. My biggest obstacle will be forgetting to do it with my morning foggy brain, so I'll have to make sure it is on my early morning to-do lists. 

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Coach Lea